Bound
by mikkimikka
Summary: Post everything, Yuffie and Vincent meet in a bar. He didn't know when it happened just that it did. It wasn't love, it never was and likely didn't ever need to be. It was exactly as she said, somehow, somewhere along the way she became the only thing in the world he had and vice versa.


Title: Bound  
>Author: mikkimikka<br>Rating: PG-13  
>Pairings: mainly Yuffie x Vincent, some Yuffie x Reno, mentions of Cloud x Tifa and Cloud x Aerith<br>Summary: Post everything, Vincent and Yuffie meet in bar and somehow decide on their future together.

Many years had passed but some things never changed; Vincent Valentine still didn't answer his phone and Yuffie Kisaragi never failed to contact him. This time shouldn't have been any different but he had seen the news. He didn't have to reply to the message for her to know he would be there at the place she had designated. When he arrived clad in dark black leather fastened with buckles, long hair hanging from a lose braid down his back and red cloak abandoned, retired after the clash with Omega, Yuffie didn't have to look up to know it was him.

She was nursing a drink, gin and tonic, and huffed, voice lacking its usual sarcastic bite, "Took you long enough."

He slid into the booth, and against his better judgment, sat beside her rather than across. His boot clad foot hit against hers and she shifted away wordlessly. The waiter came and didn't have to ask for his order. He was a regular enough customer for the man to know. He wanted vodka, always vodka.

"I take it you're not pleased with his decision," Vincent began, because between them normal greetings were no longer needed.

"Reeve's a fucking- he's a fucking backstabbing piece of shit!" Yuffie's head finally raised and her words were harsh but Vincent wasn't going to rise to their acquaintance's defense.

"He told me we were going to do it right this time! That the world would be made right. I know that things won't be perfect because we're humans aren't, but why does everyone else get their land back. Why does... why does he want Wutai to die?"

The words were out and Yuffie nearly choked on them. She reached out and knocked back the rest of her drink and then Vincent's right after it. Vincent made no move to stop her, merely watching as her eyes squeezed shut tightly as she slammed the shot glass down and breathed heavily through her nose, nostrils flaring. She was trying hard not to cry, despite the fact he'd already seen it before. She'd always been so proud. This was likely the final blow.. Soon she would shatter and wordlessly she was telling him that she trusted in him to pick up the pieces.

Reeve's WRO was built on naive idealism. Vincent could see right through it and he knew Yuffie could have too if she wanted to. But she wanted, no needed, something to hope and believe in so badly that she clung to the pretty words. A new world was to be rebuilt, and after reconstruction, governed by the local people for the local people. Four continents and four factions was the plan and of course the Kisaragi Clan dreamed of the reestablishment of their Wutai constituent and they were the obvious candidates for the leadership of said faction. However, apparently, it was only obvious to her, because despite her years of employ Reeve nailed her straight through the heart, handing leadership to another.

"How pathetic am I?"

Vincent watched now as Yuffie's shoulders hunched and her elbows pressed heavily into the wood table. Her hair, longer now but still in a shaggy bob, obscured her face. Her voice shook but he knew there were still no tears. But she seemed so small right there and he was reminded of how he first met her when she was only sixteen. She had been so bright back then, and still was in that moment, but it was hallow. If he were anyone else he'd have touched her, laid a comforting hand on her frail shoulder and offered a soothing, comforting, word.

As he watched her though he couldn't help but laugh, on the inside of course, at the ridiculousness of it, as the very first time he'd touched her was somehow recalled to mind.

:::::::::::::::::

She was only 16 and he found her tucked away in a corner stairwell of their Gold Saucer hotel. Her shoulders were hunched forward in the same manner and he observed she was gnawing at her lower lip holding back a damn of unshed tears. Against his normal standoffish demeanor he was pulled towards her, even sitting on the step beside her. She didn't move away nor did she protest his presence, despite the fact even with the journey this was likely the very first time the two had been alone. She just wiped her tears with the back of her tiny hand and after a minute spoke.

"I can't compare with anyone, can I? Not Tifa not Aeris. Why am I so pathetic? Why did I think I even had a chance?"

Vincent didn't answer. He knew it had been a series of rhetorical questions.

"I saw him and Aeris in the hallway. She's just so damn pushy, and Tifa's just so damn nice. What do I have?" Yuffie shook her head and attempted to laugh her usual proud and obnoxious laugh, though there was a decided lack of power behind it. "Whatever! I am freaking awesome! I am the white rose of Wutai! It's his loss!"

Ah, so that's what it was about. Yuffie also liked Cloud. It was cute realizing how the girl chose to express it by calling the blonde a "Spiky Headed Jerk" and other abuses, or hitting him on the shoulder hard at every opportunity.

Love taps.

She was only 16. Of course, provided the competition, and the import of the mission at hand, the older ex-SOLDIER wouldn't even bat a lash. Vincent wouldn't either. He had always preferred older women in his youth despite those around him claiming that younger was better. However, Yuffie chose that moment to look up at him with crystal gray eyes shimmering with a few tears. Her cheeks were flushed from effort and a few strands of her dark brown hair clung to the sides of her wet face.

He didn't think, merely moved to action, as a hand shot up to stroke a bit of her hair back and he knew then that it was a warm feeling he could become addicted to. His finger slid across the soft skin as if sliding upon fine silk. Her eyes closed and her lips parted. He knew it wasn't intentional, only reactionary on her part, and yet... It had been such a long sleep for him and his fingers began to quake as if experiencing sensations anew. He leaned down, pink tongue darting out only slightly, to place a soft but wet kiss beneath her eye on the already damp cheek. She gasped and his hand slid down, cupping the back of her neck, curling into the dark short hairs there and his face moved along to latch upon her lips.

If it was her first kiss or not he couldn't tell – he found out later that it was – as he was drunk upon the sensations, never mind that she hadn't responded. When he stopped, pulled back, and let his hand glide against her neck before letting go, he saw her eyes held shock. Tears were no longer present but instead a strange mixture of emotions. Vincent should have felt guilt like he did about so many things before, but after so many years away from morality his heart and conscious no longer worked as a normal man's did.

She stood abruptly, arms crossed protectively over her small chest, cheeks bursting red and without even a word she turned and ran away up the flight of stairs. There was no insult thrown at him and when he returned to the room later she fled as soon as he came, face blossoming into the cutest pink. She liked Cloud and he felt no disappointment by her rejection. He neither liked nor wanted her but rather was moved by some base, still human impulse to do what had done.

Guilt never came and the next morning as they headed off Vincent was surprised when Yuffie failed to run to Cloud's side like an over eager puppy. Instead, she hung back towards the tail end of the pack to walk along side Vincent with the normal smile on her face and her arms crossed behind her back. There was a skip in her step that almost made him raise a brow.

"Hiya, Vince!" she greeted loudly and he saw the bemused glances shot in his direction from Cloud and Cid.

They saw him as her new victim and Cloud even looked relieved.

Vincent closed his eyes, allowing himself to take a calming breath, before opening them again and replying with a cold, "Yuffie."

Yuffie giggled and seemed pleased by the response. Vincent himself wasn't as unaffected as his outward demeanor may have made the others think. That base part of him felt a kindling of something ignite within. Because, dead as he may seem, he was a man and the kiss made him remember that which he had missed for nearly 30 years.

He did not court her. She was naive and he didn't want to lead her on in the direction where she'd think love was a possible eventuality. After all, he wasn't looking to settle down ever. Once his retribution was finished he planned to disappear. She could not tie him down just as the rest of their party couldn't.

And that was how he ended up in the precarious situation, only a little less than two weeks later, in a secluded area with the young ninja's cute lips wrapped around his cock. He stoked her dark locks as her head bobbed and reveled in her inexperienced ministrations. He knew by then that he had been her first kiss, would be her first everything – except love, nothing about love. His gentle fingers in her hair turned and twisted into a harsh grip as he came and Yuffie didn't complain even when his cum hit her in the eye.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"He says I'm not mature enough! Not Mature! Can you believe it?" Yuffie's fist slammed on the table.

Vincent reached out to stable the new glass of alcohol in front of her but she only moved to snatch it from his hands, spilling a little of the contents on them both plus the table as well.

"I fucking saved the world... not once... not even twice, three fucking times!" she drank the beverage quickly, once again slamming the glass down in her anger once finished. "You were there. You saw it."

Vincent dabbed at the table with a napkin.

"If I recall correctly you were on the team," replied the man. "But not the leader."

"It's called experience and you gotta start somewhere."

Vincent wouldn't argue with that. He barely knew Reeve's choice for Wutai's new leader even if she were someone tied to WRO. Vincent didn't make it a point to know anyone regardless of who they were affiliated with. Though he did vaguely recall a time the woman (and Reeve) came by Yuffie's place unannounced. It was right after he and Yuffie fucked and he remembered how flustered Yuffie had been, worried that somehow the visitors seeing them together would get back to Reno.

Reno.

But he wouldn't ask why Yuffie came to him and not Reno in her time of need. He knew that they both understood how unreliable the Turk could be and despite helping out here and there it was no guarantee that guy was a good person. There was more pointing towards the opposite.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Yuffie had just turned 18 when she got involved with Reno. Of course Vincent didn't hear it from her. He'd met Red XIII and they bonded a bit where they never did before. But even as he told the feline how he would be there forever a small part of him wished it weren't true; a flash of brown hair and gray eyes ran through his mind.

And with that he came upon the craving, because that's all he was willing to call it. He needed to see her, touch her, and slipped away to Wutai, sticking to the shadows and cover of night for travel.

Wutai was like the rest of the world reduced to a post meteor purgatory. The people were ill and he saw where Godo had lumped them into a quarantine tent outside of the village. Vincent bypassed that, feet moving to the place he knew well, the small shelter near the pagoda Yuffie still called home and even without his familiarity he could track it by the teams of cats that made their home with the girl. Sliding up to the entrance however, the cats' scent wasn't the only scent to hit his nose. There was also the tell tale musk of sex mixed with alcohol.

Vincent had many bestial features and traits rendering him frightfully territorial. Yuffie's scent mixing with that of another male's left him clutching the doorpost so hard he felt the wood bend and splinter beneath his fingers. He entered, his red eyes scanning the darkness, and was met by the ghastly glow of 3 pairs of feline eyes. They knew who he was and paid him no heed to him as he ventured further into the residence. The place was in no more disarray than usual nor did the smell betray any trauma. Whatever happened was between two willing participants, which caused him to be shocked by the state he eventually found the girl in.

Tangled in the sheets of her bed, Yuffie's arm hung limply off one side and her legs bent sharply over the edge. She was completely nude apart from the sheets wrapped around her and he could see in the darkness, red eyes dilating as they took in the sight, of the bruising on her crushed neck. They weren't hand-shaped but like a bar and he knew without even coming closer that the attack had been the reason for her passing out.

He moved swiftly to Yuffie's side casting a weak cure spell on her; she winced in her sleep. For a few moments he stared, wondering if he should leave her be or not, before unconsciously beginning to untangle her limbs from the thing sheet and spreading it over her, properly covering her body. He lightly ran a finger over the bruise on her neck then stood abruptly, having decided on making his leave.

Of course Vincent knew the other scent that lingered. Just as he also recognized the mark left on Yuffie's throat as coming from a specific weapon. He didn't need to ask to know what was going on and he didn't have the right to make a single complaint about it. So he slipped out after that and didn't even hesitate or take a single glance behind him as he exited through the door.

He made it a point to not answer anymore messages after that, even more so than usual, even more so those from her.

He avoided it under the pretense of being a loner. It was believable even for himself and as he fended for his life in the wild lands of the middle continent, as if he could really die, he convinced himself even that he didn't care what she did or with who.

His suspicions weren't confirmed until a year later when, after the defeat of Bahamut SIN and the remnants, they met in a bar. He masked his surprise that the Turks were there. He was out of the loop. Of course life and relationships progressed without him. But what he wasn't prepared for was Reno stepping up beside Yuffie where she leaned against the bar, and bending down to give the girl a kiss, a kiss in public that didn't cause a single scandalized blinking eye because everyone fucking knew. It wasn't what Vincent thought. It wasn't just a thing, like what Vincent and the girl had always had, but rather a relationship. And the entire old party was aware of it, as if Reno and Yuffie weren't just some joke.

Vincent felt something in that moment like a wind being knocked from him and he almost forgot to breathe from the sheer ridiculousness of it.

Reno, snarky, sadistic, smarmy Reno had done what Vincent had no intentions of doing. Because Vincent was content to use her, to drive himself into her willing body and take, take, take! But he had absolutely no love to give! Reno stepped in where he couldn't and as ridiculous as it was for him to feel that way Vincent wanted to know what made the Turk even feel like he had the right!

What made him any better after all of the hell he'd unleashed upon the innocent, including the collapse of sector seven up to what little he had seen of the two's relationship. Reno had choked her, had pressed the length of his electro-mag rod against Yuffie's neck as he took her, fucked her and all of the breath out of her until she lost consciousness.

Vincent had been staring and Yuffie noticed, waving happily as if she had still just turned 16 and was his. Vincent didn't wave back but Reno turned his head to regard him. Reno only had to register who his young – too young – girlfriend was waving at before he smirked. He didn't wave, just smirked in that sleazy and cocky way of his and that was all it took so that Vincent knew that Yuffie had told him everything about them, that Reno had known what he had done to the then 16 year old in the forest near Gongaga, in the evacuation tents outside Midgar, or even that night 3 years ago when he started the whole madness.

And Vincent realized he couldn't deal with anyone knowing.

He remembered the night she called him and left a message about the break up. He remembered because he chose to answer it and proceeded to fuck her into a shady Junon hotel bed for the first time in two years , and then afterwards, for the first time ever slowly made love to her without her even knowing it.

Or if she did she never mentioned it or demanded he make anything of it. Instead she asked for bacon for breakfast and he missed the sight of her sleeping face so much he felt like his chest could burst. But of course he disappeared after that.

He wouldn't be himself if he stayed.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

And yet, years passed and somehow he, the one who didn't claim her, didn't see the point in having her, had her. Not Reno. It was after all the only thing it could mean when, with everything happening with Reeve and Wutai, the girl called him, her on again off again fuck, rather than her ex-boyfriend.

He couldn't help but be amused by his own actions as well as hers. He rationalized it for himself but he was self aware enough to know it was a mystery for any others. His lips quirked up only slightly, but Yuffie knew him more than anyone now living would probably ever know. She tilted her head regarding him with a frown.

"What's so funny?" she demanded.

Her voice wasn't nearly as slurred as one would assume it to be after drinking as much as she did. Vincent considered dating Reno to have been her training. He also knew when she had that tone and amount to drink it was more difficult to brush off her question than to answer it.

Vincent tugged the glass from her hand and gestured for the waiter to take it before answering her.

"Isn't it funny? I'm the one you think to come to," he replied smoothly.

After all, what remedy could he promise? He was unemployed with zero influence and had just only recently decided to settle into some semblance of a normal life.

"And who do you think I should turn to?" she asked, deadly serious.

He opened his mouth as if to answer but she held up her hand cutting him off.

"I'm the only person in this world you have-"

Vincent wanted nothing more than to argue and tell her that she was wrong. He had Shelke, though she wasn't human nor warm enough for his liking. But also because he still felt like he should say he had nothing to live for. Instead he let her continue.

"-And now that Wutai's gone," she took a stabling breath, hugging her own arms and looking up at him with wide gray eyes, clear and devoid of any obstacles. "All I have is you too."

She said it as if reading off her judgment, her sentence and he could tell that she felt it painfully twisting within her, the sick truth of Wutai's dissolution as a nation and the rise of something else, a mere image of the original. She shook her head blinking hard and biting her lip before looking up again, eyes hardened into cold steel. He could read in them determination as much as desperation.

"Marry me."

He froze. That wasn't what he expected to hear.

"Yuffie-"

"Vince, I can't take it anymore!"

And he suddenly wished they were somewhere else because he wanted nothing else but to embrace her. He didn't know when it happened just that it did. It wasn't love, it never was and likely didn't ever need to be. It was exactly as she said, somehow, somewhere along the way she became the only thing in the world he had and vice versa. His heart ached for her because despite his eternity she was still so young and somehow it had to all be his fault somehow.

"Please," it was whispered and he looked down as she reached out and took into her small hands his large ones.

He was her entire world now and she was his. He didn't have to answer. They stood. He threw some gil on the table and they were out the door.

Kalm, true to its name was a relatively soothing and quiet place. It was the reason Vincent chose it after returning to society after Omega. They stepped into the square and he didn't even pull away when her hand laced in his. On the outside perhaps they looked like a proper couple even though they weren't and never were. When they reached the fountain Vincent finally spoke.

"If we were to marry-"

"I don't care what they think!"

She said it so rushed like she knew what he was thinking. She turned so they were face to face and tilted her head to look right at him.

"I'm serious about this. I will never change my mind."

And Vincent knew that Yuffie never ever changed her mind ever. But he, unlike her, literally had nothing to lose. His friends, if they could be called that, weren't actually too happy with him. After the breakup, Reno, always seeking the chance to be the little shit that he is, and loving a good bit of gossip, told them about what he did when Yuffie was 16 and what they were still doing at that point.

It added a strange layer to his being recruited by Yuffie, who was then a spy for Reeve's organization, and he could feel the judgment and resentment. Cid would fly them around on the Shera but he remembered the first day on board. Cid, always the blunt one, looked Vincent straight in the eye.

:::::::::::::::::

"What the hell were you thinking? She was just a kid. Hell, she still is."

"Do you make it a habit of believing what Reno tells you."

Cid made a sound, likely possible as a result of his constant smoking, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I've seen the way the kid looks at you. You can't tell me she just got a little crush."

Vincent didn't see why it should matter.

"You realize that she deserves more than what you give her?"

Vincent didn't need to be told what he already knew. He was the one who never gave her anything nor did he ever promise anything in the first place.

"I don't support it. I don't dislike you but god damn I don't support that shit."

"We don't need any support."

It felt weird for Vincent to refer to himself and Yuffie as "we". Cid's response was to curse colorfully underneath his breath, sending Vincent a scathing look.

"And to think she left Reno because of you..."

It was the last the pilot said before shuffling off. Vincent didn't even bother to puzzle over those last words. After all, Cid was completely wrong. He had nothing to do with Reno and Yuffie's breakup.

Tifa had been the softer supposedly kinder version of the same thing. She called and he didn't want to answer but he did anyway. He had been making a recent effort to be reachable and against his will he accepted an invitation to dinner.

Denzel was there and the resident couple's toddling son, Skye. The few times he'd been by his time had been monopolized by the children but that dinner proved to be different as Tifa sought to make it awkward, seating Vincent at Yuffie's side or coercing them to do some chore for her while she was busy with Skye.

It all came to a head though as he was getting ready to leave, back to whatever dark corner of the planet he had previously came from. He said his goodbyes to the children and Yuffie. No one seemed to mind him leaving, the white rose of Wutai included, and then he was gone. Or so he hoped.

He was caught just at the doorway by a serious looking Tifa. Without a word she followed him into the cool night air and they stopped on the porch, him questioning her with bright red eyes.

"Are you really doing this, Vincent?"

Doing what? Vincent didn't know what the brunette across from him was referring to.

Tifa sighed, "Yuffie's in there. She needs you."

Vincent merely stared impassively with hard eyes. He knew that Yuffie probably told her about their relations but he doubted it included anything like that. Yuffie didn't need him. Tifa was merely projecting.

"I don't agree with your relationship," Tifa said at length.

"Then why are you doing this?" he asked, turning his back towards the woman. "Won't you just let me walk away?"

"Will you really? You'd really just walk away?" Tifa asked, tone wavering a tad. "You had years to just walk away. She was 16 years old. She's 20 now and have you yet walked away? Even when she was with Reno were you ever really gone? You just lurked and waited so you could take advantage-"

Vincent bristled and whirled so fast that Tifa had to jump back to avoid the fabric of his cloak. His red eyes were wide and he could tell from the look on her face that she could read in them his madness, his insanity, but she did not fear him. No, she felt disappointment and even pity.

"Yuffie's got shit taste in men," she bit.

Vincent let his shoulders sag as he once again relaxed, closing his eyes and letting out a deep breath. It wasn't something he could deny. He wasn't sure really who was worse, Reno or himself. Perhaps it was a case of picking your preferred method of execution.

He opened his eyes and actually smirked as he replied, "Like your taste is any better?"

When he finally got away he received a message on his phone from the young ninja. Putting the phone to his ear he listened.

"Vince, you won't believe it. Boobs accused me of the most idiotic thing ever. She said that I'm in love with you. Me, the awesome amazing white rose of Wutai in love with you, the gross... well, you. Never! Never! Never!"

The next sentence though lost the initial enthusiasm.

"As if... As if I could ever fall in love," she said voice suddenly solemn. "With someone like you."

She hung up then without even a good bye. Vincent didn't call back of course. He never did. He merely pulled the PHS from his ear and whispered into the air.

"Neither would I..."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Yuffie pulled herself up so that she was standing on the ledge of the fountain. She placed a hand on Vincent's shoulder for balance and let go after only a second.

"It feels so great here," she beamed, turning her head towards the sky.

He just stood by and watched so Yuffie strode about the perimeter of the fountain. She glanced back at him once or twice, a big beaming smile on her face.

He never once thought about what it would be like to marry her and even after she'd just asked his mind refused to go down that path to explore. It was an uncharted territory. Would he tire of her smile?

She came to a stop in front of him again, this time draping her arms over his shoulders. She slid her eyes closed and leaned forward. He caught her in an embrace and relished the feel of her tiny waist in his arms. His frame was smaller than it had been in his Turk days but holding her made him feel so big. She tightened her arms about his neck and he did the same.

"Take me home."

He knew she didn't mean Wutai. She never meant that when she said that to him, and she said it often, nearly every time they met. It meant to take her wherever he was staying at the moment. This time it actually would be his home, the one he just recently set up.

He led her back, she hopped down from the fountain rim, and they walked hand in hand. Vincent wondered if they'd walk like that more in the future.

The past few years passed through his mind as he considered their history. Of course there were many moments shared and among all of their acquaintances she was the one he was closest to. But even still the exact damning moment, the one instance that made him tie himself so tightly to her, that was lost to him. For him it was a gradation, they started as two only to wind up as one and the same.

They didn't speak at all. When she finally did he words were solemn.

"The dark never bothers me anymore."

For anyone else it would seem irrelevant but Vincent knew where the train of thought was headed.

"It's funny," continued the girl. "After what happened with Nero I think anyone would be too shaken. It was seriously the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life."

Vincent listened to her.

"It was like an absolute void, almost like nonexistence and my heart too felt this huge pressure like a weight from the bleakness. I'd never felt anything like it before. Not when my mother died, not when Wutai lost the war, or even now after everything. Even now... nothing is darker."

She sighed and they stopped, facing one another.

"Do you know why I can handle any darkness?"

She didn't wait for his answer and clasped his hand tighter.

"Because I have you. Even when alone and I remember that void... when I think about how you were there, how you pulled me out, held me safely from behind and-"

She gasped, the words stopped from her mouth as Vincent finally failed to hold back any longer.

He knew the moment she spoke of, he remembered it as well though it was the first time either of them spoke about it. He always knew there was something singular about the event.

Of course he would have saved anyone in a similar situation. If it were Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Red XIII, even that damn Reno, he would have saved them all in the very same situation. After all, they were a team and he was insusceptible to Nero's power. It was his duty to aid his teammates just as it was theirs to do the same for him.

What made Yuffie different was not the action of the rescue but rather the thoughts behind it. He didn't care about whether Yuffie could or couldn't take on the darkness, whether she were emotionally strong enough to take such despair or not. Instead he found he didn't want her to experience it at all. He didn't want her to know such pain.

If it were anyone else the deed would be done for the benefit of the team, because they had a mission and they worked together to fulfill it. With Yuffie though he just wanted to shield her, as simple as that. In the short moments she was engulfed he forgot about their mission. Nero was far from his mind, as was DEEPGROUND. No, he only cared about Yuffie.

He couldn't hold back after hearing her confession and he grabbed her, harder than he ever intended. He squeezed her shoulders and she pressed her head against his chest hard as a sudden violent sob quaked through her. She shivered and then a light wail was muffled into his shirt as she let go, sagging against him and crying.

They reached his place. Vincent remained a minimalist. Instead of a bed he slept on a mattress sitting directly on the floor along with a feather pillow covered with a quilt.

Vincent led Yuffie to it and she didn't complain not even once of the springs digging uncomfortably into her back. He let his arms encircle her slender body, the body he'd come to know so well, resting his head in the crook of her neck, taking in her scent and relishing the feel of the gentle heaving of her breasts.

He'd fucked her countless numbers of times in countless numbers of ways. But that night would be the second time he made love to her. Just like the first time she said nothing of it afterwards, instead turning on her side to snuggle against his threadbare blanket.

He watched her in the moonlight, her eyes were closed and her hairs stuck to her forehead with a thin layer of sweat. He blinked and felt his eyes grow heavy. He almost fell asleep but he heard the whisper of Yuffie's voice and his eyes once again flew open.

She reached out and took his hand in hers, pulling it closer and hugging it to her bare chest. She tugged it up to place a series of small kisses to the knuckles and repeated what she had said in a still small voice.

"Thank you."

The next morning Vincent woke up alone in bed. He sat up, squinting against the light pouring in through his window. He had no lover beside him and didn't even think twice about it as he pulled himself of the mattress and slipped on a pair of pants and a shirt.

He shuffled out of his bedroom, crossing into the kitchen, pondering his over the new day. However his train of thought stopped as he spotted the note taped to the refrigerator written in sloppy script.

_VINCE! Remember the deal! It's a promise!_

Vincent plucked the note off, leaning against the counter to read it again.

"I suppose it is," he murmured.

And like that Vincent Valentine knew he would be getting married.

END

AN: thanks for reading. I haven't played this game in so many years and I am not satisfied. I felt it ended too abruptly despite it being the end I wanted. Whoops. please read and review and let me know how it is!


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